This past Sunday, November 6th, the New England Patriots honored all military veterans as part of their Veteran’s Day week celebration prior to their game against the New York Giants. During the pre-game festivities, the Patriots honored 20 current military personnel along with 20 veterans and Patriots cheerleaders to spread out American flags on the field during the performance of The Star Spangled Banner. Prior to the game, the Patriots held a moment of silence to honor the memory of U.S. Army Specialist Steven Gutowski, who was killed just a few weeks ago in Afghanistan and was a former Patriots game day employee.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft said in a press release announcing this event that we “owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all the veterans and active duty soldiers who volunteer their lives to protect us and keep our country safe.”

The events from Sunday’s game were the beginning of a week-long focus on veteran and military volunteering. Throughout the 2011 season, the Patriots have followed a “Celebrate Volunteerism” campaign, and it was only appropriate that during the week of Veteran’s Day that the Patriots would take this week to focus on the military and veterans. This week the Patriots will focus their efforts and work with the Raytheon Organization, which focuses their attention to support community outreach for veterans and members of the armed forces, and Carepacks, which is a non-profit organization committed to sending care packages to members of the military overseas.

For all of their efforts this season to focus on volunteerism, and especially this week’s focus on the military and armed forces, The Good In Sports would like to award the New England Patriots franchise with a Gold Star and congratulate them for all of their success both on and off the field during this season. The franchise has gone above and beyond this season to promote their off-field exploits, and it is appropriate that during the week of Veteran’s Day that the Patriots would honor our own Patriots for their work protecting our country.